Review: Scandalous Prince (Mafia Royals #2) by Rachel Van Dyken

Print Length: TBA

Publisher: Van Dyken Enterprises (September 22, 2020)

From Goodreads.com:  

I was born under fire and swore to protect her until my dying day, I just never knew that one day, I'd be the very monster I was protecting her from.

She didn't know it was me.
She didn't know that I had no choice and would do it again and again to save her.
I may as well have given her the mark on her finger.
The one that shows where her loyalty must lie.
Because we don't sin in silence.
And eventually, you have to pay up what you owe.
My need to protect her turned into a lie to save her.
And when she found out—I turned in to the very monster I was trying to protect her from.
Watching Violet Abandonato walk out of my life was like a knife to the chest, a wound that refused to heal.
The bosses sent me to protect her, to watch over her even though I was the demon she fled.
We both carry scars.
But if all I can have is her hate for as long as I breathe.
I'll take it.
Because at the end of the day, I should burn in Hell forever thinking Chase Abandonato's perfect angel would pick me—over her perfect life.
"I broke you," I confessed.
"The worst part… is that you liked it," she snapped right back.

Welcome to the second generation of the mafia, may the best man or woman, be left standing.
May God bless our tainted souls. 

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My Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Right off the bat let me start off by saying that (in my opinion) this book needs a trigger warning. Obviously, being a mafia romance book I was not expecting sunshine and cotton candy clouds, but neither was I expecting  a young woman to basically be raped in chapter one either. I say basically because while she was drugged, blindfolded and forced to give up her virginity (or her family would be killed), the author tried to lesson the blow by making the one doing the deed a kind and gentle person. 

Fast forward to present day - and we're back with our merry band of second generation mafia. This book features characters from the prior two, but focuses mainly on the illicit love affair between Breaker and Violet. Much like their other cousins, a romance between them has been forbidden, but this one doubly so due to the fact that Breaker is adopted AND has been acting as Violet's body-guard for years. The heart wants what it wants though, and like their cousins before them, these two can't keep their hands off of each other (although was it really necessary to have sex THERE). In fact, I believed the romance between Breaker and Violet much more than the one between Junior and Serena. 

However, this IS the mafia, and good things do not always come to those that wait. In this instance, our star-crossed lovers will be forced apart when it comes out that Violet is betrothed to someone else. And that is when the real fun begins. 

On the whole, unlike Ruthless Princess, I felt like this one was less focused of the violence of the mafia (except the abovementioned trigger warning and a few later instances of knife happy mafia men). This enabled the author to focus more on the inner workings of the families and the secrets that they are forced to keep in order to survive. This one was more psychological than emotional (for me anyway), with all the ups and downs one comes to expect when reading a story from Rachel. 

Sadly, I figured out the big twist nearly from the start - however it was still interesting to see the way the author weaved the story around what she knew was going to happen and I was still managed to be surprised at one of the routes she chose to go. 

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

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                                                  Scandalous Prince is available from Amazon.com